He said: “It’s quite usual this time of year for Parliament to go in to a recess. It’s perfectly correct and appropriate to prorogue Parliament.

“I think it’s absolutely right that this prime minister and his government get the chance to set up their agenda.”

UK divided over what democracy means

It’s a far cry from the numbers that we saw marching through Westminster earlier this year. I think we’d probably measure this one in the low thousands [in central London].

But there are deeply-held passions here, different kinds of passions. Some are here because they don’t like Boris Johnson’s government, some because they are worried about proroguing Parliament, some because they don’t want no deal, some because they don’t want Brexit at all.

There’s been a lot of talk about democracy from the people I’ve spoken to here today, but actually I think what it comes down to is a country which is driven by very different definitions about what democracy actually means.

The Jo Cox Foundation, which was set up in the wake of the Labour MP’s murder in 2016, warned that anger over Brexit “should not spill over into something more dangerous”.